The present invention relates to a new and improved method for the production of covering material formed of leather for the upholstery and cushions or the like of furniture, and this invention also pertains to covering materials fabricated according to the aforesaid method.
Leather is a naturally grown product. When it was used as a covering material for upholstery and cushions of furniture it was not only so for decades, but always so, that its natural material structure was destroyed. A primary reason for this was that previously there was exclusively employed as the covering material thin leather which was obtained by splitting, seemingly with the thought of attempting to approach the thickness of the original fabric covering, but also due to the preconception that leather must be thin in order to possess the softness and pliability required of upholstery-and cushion coverings. However, if the thickness is reduced by splitting, then there is lost the grown under-layer which has grown together with the grain side i.e., with the folds and grains, and the remaining streaks, folds and graining alter and become lost. In certain instances attempts have been made to impart to the leather by means of shrinkage tanning a "natural" appearance. However, the thus formed graining already due to its uniformity gives an artificial and by no means natural impression. There was of course generally used as covering material thin leather which was stretched by tensioning and the natural streaking or veins totally smoothed. With such material there hardly remained any of its original character when considered visually.
Equally decisive for the appearance of the finished covering material is the so-called finishing operation. With this final operation there was produced at the surface of the leather, previously while using fat and wax, later with the aid of chemicals, a protective layer in order to prevent solid or liquid contaminants from coming into contact with the surface of the covering material or penetrating into the pores thereof. Furthermore, the finishing of the leather was intended to impress thereon a certain visual effect. This however also did not produce any natural appearance and when touching the product the thus treated material likewise felt unnatural. It might also be mentioned that the foregoing opened the door completely to producing imitation leather. Indeed it is now hardly possible to distinguish between the so-to-speak de-natural coverings formed by splitting, smoothing and preparation into an actually material-foreign appearance and handle from those coverings formed of imitation leather. Furthermore, such leather coverings are particularly delicate, especially by virtue of the preparation intended for their protection, since the protective layer in the final analysis cannnot prevent the penetration, especially of liquid contaminants, into the leather and such they can become entrapped in the pores. During removal, particularly with the aid of chemical agents, also by rubbing, it is specifically the protective layer which is altered or damaged and there are formed spots or speckling which no longer can be removed.